dominic's knuckles ache with a phantom pain. he thinks he can hear the crack of snapping cartilage with every footstep. the thing is, he already knows the warehouses are haunted.

the houndoom pads between the two men, nose to ground and exhaling tendrils of smoke as it tries to find a scent to follow. they do two laps before the dog perks up and quickens its pace. when they approach the identified doors, dominic turns to zacharias with a toothy gash of a smile.

"we just clearing them out or are you looking for a new friend?"

@zacharias

dominic didn't help burke with the door.

"shame," dominic said, though his tone indicated he didn't think it was a shame at all.

when zacharias was done he followed him inside, eyes narrowed against the darkness. the houndoom snapped it's jaws in anticipation, tongue lolling out of its maw hungrily, prompting dominic to roll his eyes and return it to its capsule. the dog really can get obnoxious about these things.

dominic exhaled a sharply - an amused scoff - and jerked his chin toward the gloom.

"go on, then. show us what you can do, burke."

in the absence of anything else to do with his hands, dominic's fingers twitched for his pack of cigarettes and keeping them still proved a conscious effort.

@zacharias

dominic squared his jaw and narrowed his eyes at the sudden rush of sound and movement ahead of them. it's not that he was superstitious per se - he was accustomed to the meddling of ghost-types.

after all, rocket was born in saffron, like he was, and lavender's pokemon tower was a stone's throw away. and what's a little grave-robbing as a tween rocket recruit?

still, the screeching of ghosts somewhere in the depths of the warehouse as they were... hunted? absorbed? exorcised? by zacharias's gengar sounded like the drowning of a litter of unwanted littens.

dominic winced and let his lip curl in something resembling a sneer.

"that seemed efficient," dominic says when the sounds die down, sounding almost impressed. he knew intellectually that zacharias is competent but it always came as a surprise when he actually got to witness it.

@zacharias

while zacharias speaks, dominic listens intently though his expression remains impassive because pride wouldn’t allow him to give the man any more than that. his gaze alternates from his colleague to flickers in the gloom - white noise static given shape in the form of something like a MIRAGE.

"maybe i’ll keep an eye out for you." dominic lets the words rest for a moment and takes the chance to glance over zacharias’s shoulder to see what he’s looking at on his phone - very rude. dominic gives a short bark of laughter at the photos of zacharias and his gengar.

"very cute. mine just sings that fucking perish song constantly. gives me a migraine."

@zacharias